Brussels, 25/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - Although the use of asbestos has been well and truly banned in the EU since 2005, after proving to be highly toxic for human health, it should be subject to further regulation, the European Parliament committee on employment and social affairs has said. With the adoption, on Thursday 24 January, of the draft report by Stephen Hugues (S&D, UK), MEPs have wanted to invite the European Commission to legislate on a significant number of points concerning this material which “is still found in many ships, trains and especially in buildings, including many public buildings”.
The report comprises six groups of measures to: (1) make compulsory the establishment of public asbestos registers by member states; (2) ensure that workers likely to be in contact with asbestos are properly trained and qualified; (3) develop programmes for eliminating asbestos; (4) update norms for the identification, notification, recognition and compensation of asbestos-related illness; (5) step up support for groups of victims; and (6) promote a global ban on asbestos.
Compromise amendments adopted just before the vote amend the text's coverage on two sensitive points. Instead of calling on the Commission to make the establishment of public asbestos registers compulsory in member states, MEPs have chosen that member states should simply receive a recommendation to develop a register that “would serve to provide relevant information”. The second change concerns action plans that the EU should set in place in order to eliminate asbestos from public and private buildings. Before this is done, the authorities should “conduct an impact assessment and cost benefit analysis” of the action plans.
Karima Delli (Greens/EFA, France) said (our translation throughout) that the measures are a “first step” but an insufficient step. She thus regrets the “lack of political will to make compulsory the tracing and the registration of persistent stocks of asbestos and the reduction of thresholds for worker exposure to asbestos fibre”. Although asbestos is banned nowadays, it remains a “ticking time bomb”, as “it will continue to cause the death of former workers for several decades to come”, Delli concluded. (JK/transl.jl)